


Trapped Again

by IaMcHrIsSi



Series: Batfam Week 2018 [2]
Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-30
Updated: 2018-07-30
Packaged: 2019-06-18 17:57:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,987
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15491487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IaMcHrIsSi/pseuds/IaMcHrIsSi
Summary: Dick and Jason just want to catch some bad guys. Instead they get trapped by an explosion.Or: Jason is panicky, and Dick is a good big brother.





	Trapped Again

**Author's Note:**

> The second entry for the Batfam Week, prompt Trapped. As though that could end with anything but angst...
> 
> Also, I've always liked the idea that Dick thinks of Jason mostly as Jay, idk why, I think it's cute.

“You know, I feel like those goons aren't what they used to be.” Dick says, scanning the warehouse. There had been some gang resistance on the front, but not as much as their used to. Definitively not as much as is the usual in Gotham.

“Maybe they were dizzy with all your twirling?” Jason says, voice dry even through the voice modulator on his helmet. Dick grins at him, and even though he can't see it through the helmet, he thinks that Jay is grinning too.

“Nah, I think they're just not really trying anymore. Already given up, knowing we're about to bust them anyway.” Dick says, and that's when the floor gives out under him.

He doesn't even hear the bang that must have surely occurred, the cracks and rumbling of the breaking stone. There's just this moment of perfect silence, and a terrifying second of weightlessness.

 

Then darkness.

When Dick finally gets his thoughts back together, he takes stock of the situation. His rips hurt, bruised, probably, there might be a cracked one, but he doesn't think any of them are broken. His arm's wet with what, considering the pain, he assumes is blood from a rather nasty cut. Nothing immediately life threatening, there's not enough blood for that, though he should probably put at least a temporary bandage on it soon, to prevent an infection. Though, with all the dust flying around, that's probably a fool's hope.

“Oracle?” He whispers, touching his com, but with all that interference he's not surprised that nobody answers. The goons probably jammed the coms too, for good measure.

Then he remembers that he wasn't alone when the warehouse collapsed.

“Red Hood!” He screams, hearing his own voice sound panicked and horse. He doesn't care. “Red Hood! Jay!” He tries to get to his feet, but hits his head on debris, so he goes to all fours and starts crawling. It hurts, because the debris is sharp and hard and he can't see …

Right. Emergency torches. Thank God for Bruce being a paranoid asshole. He clicks the button, and then he has to avert his eyes, because the light is much to bright. But after a moment, he can look around.

It's bad. He's in some kind of cavity of what probably used to be a cellar. There wasn't one in the building records he'd checked before coming here, so it's probably old as heck and unstable, too. Debris is lying everywhere, and he can see no way out. And no Jay.

How stupid had he been? He'd known it was too easy, and he'd still not gotten it. Goons being defeated that easily... he'd joked about it, instead of taking it as the warning sign it was. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

“Jay!” He shouts as loud as he dares. There's a chance that the goons are still on top of them, waiting to finish the job, but it's not that likely. That blast should have killed them. Just like....

Bad line of thought. Really, really bad line of thought. Jay is not dead. He's not going to die, because Dick is right here, and he's not going to fail his little brother a second time. Not happening.

“Jay!” He starts crawling again, slowly, until there's a noise from his right. He turns around, ready to attack, and breathes a sigh of relief.

“Jay.” His brother's crawling too, coming out from some debris that must have fallen down right onto him. He's moving though, slowly, but not like he's in too much pain. At the sound of his name, he looks up.

“Dick.” He says, and Dick immediately reassess his brother's health. Even through the modulator, Jay sounds... young. Vulnerable. Hurt.

“Are you okay?” He asks, crawling more quickly to get to Jason. There's no obvious bloodstains on his brother's clothes, but that doesn't have to mean a thing. He could still be hurt.

“I'm buried under a few tons of rock with very little chance of digging my way out. And oh yeah, I just got exploded. So, no, Dick, I'm not okay.” Jay's shaking slightly, as if he's trying to suppress it.

Damn it. If Dick is freaked out by this, how must Jay feel? Jason doesn't talk about it, not really, but Dick knows his brother still has nightmares about his death. And truly, how could it be different? He was murdered at 15 and then _dug himself out of his own grave_. Of course that messed him up.

And now he's back to being buried under the ground after being blown up. Damn it all.

“I'm right here.” Dick says, slowly putting a hand on Jason's shoulder. His brother flinches, and Dick bites his tongue. He doesn't want to scare Jason or do anything he doesn't want to, but he has to help somehow.

The trembling gets stronger, as though Jason is loosing control. Dick goes through all his training, everything Bruce taught him, everything he learned leading superhero teams and going through police basic. There's got to be something. He knows he learned about panic attacks.

“Can't breathe.” Jay says, so quietly Dick almost doesn't hear it. Damn it. Damn it, damn it, _damn it_.

“How about we take that helmet of, alright?” He asks. He's not sure if that's going to make anything better. The helmet gives Jay control, he knows that, but the helmet also keeps him separated from others. And maybe a connection to Dick is something Jay needs right now.

For a moment, Jay doesn't move beyond his trembling, but then he slowly reaches up and takes of the helmet. Dick rips of his domino at the same time. If they're doing this, then there aren't going to be any masks.

“Breathe with me.” He says, looking Jay straight in the eyes. His brother looks young, younger than his 19 years, and terrified.

“Can't.” Jay chokes out, trembling even stronger now. Dick puts his hand on Jason's chest, takes Jason's hand and puts it on his chest.

“Feel the rhythm. Breathe with me, Jay, just breathe.” Finally, finally, after a few more long, long moments, Jason's breathing starts to slow. His eyes loose that feverish glace, and the trembling slows down.

“Are you hurt?” He asks when Jay seems like he's somewhat got the panic attack under control. There's a stiffness in his brother's movements, but nothing that seems to indicate something seriously wrong, and yet...

“No. Got lucky. Some old wall thing caught the debris before it could hit me. I might have cracked a rip falling, but that's it.” He's not lying, Dick is pretty sure of it. He's gotten good at reading Jason.

“Good. That's very, very good.” Dick says, leaning back and closing his eyes for a moment.

“You're bleeding.” Jason's voice still sounds rough, but not as close to breaking as before. That's good. Only then does Dick realize what Jay said.

“Oh yeah, it's not that serious.” He says, but to be honest, he doesn't know. Now that the adrenaline is wearing of, it does kind of hurt a lot. But he doesn't want to worry Jay. Jay's got enough to worry about.

“You're bleeding through your uniform, Dick. That is kind of serious.” Jay says, and he's well enough to sound annoyed, so that's good. Dick chances a look at his arm, and okay, so maybe Jay is right. He did not think it was that … mangled.

“Damn it, Dick, why don't you say something?” Jason hisses, filching through his pocket for something... a bandage, of course, what else would he be looking for? Damn it, he's light headed. Damn it, blood loss.

Jason cuts the uniform away on Dick's arm, and then he puts the bandage over the wound. His hands are surprisingly gentle. But Dick probably shouldn't be surprised. Jay may have his hard edges, but that's not all he is. He's also soft on the inside... and that's the blood loss talking.

“Don't you dare die on me.” Jason mutters as he fastens the bandage and checks Dick over for other injuries with his own torch and Dick grins. Jay has a bat torch, too.

“Not going to happen. You're not getting rid of me that easily.” He smiles, a bit shakily, and Jay curses. His brother goes through his pockets, finally finding some vitamin tablets and a bit of juice.

“Drink this. Don't want to have to explain to B why his golden boy died two feet away from me.” He sounds gruff, but Dick can hear the worry. It makes him feel kind of warm inside.

“Aw, I didn't know you cared.” He teases, and Jason actually snorts. For a few moments, they're silent, Dick drinking his juice and getting his senses back together. The arm still hurts, but his head clears. Probably not so much blood loss as shock, then, which is good. A bit of juice and a vitamin tablet wouldn't have helped them in the long run if Dick had actually lost so much blood that he'd gotten woozy.

“You do know that I care, right?” Jason suddenly asks, voice quiet and insecure. “Like, I'm shit at showing it, I know that, but I care. You know that, right?”

Dick hugs him. It's awkward because they're both sitting and Jay is much bigger than he is and they both got exploded recently, but sometimes you just need to hug your brother.

“I know.” He whispers, squeezing his brother again before letting him go. There are tears in Jay's eyes, but Dick is an awesome big brother and doesn't mention it. He sits next to Jason again, leaning his back on the wall carefully, but his shoulder touches Jay's, and Jay doesn't move away or flinch or anything.

“What do we do now?” Jay asks, and there's a note of fear in his voice. None of the panic from earlier, thank God, but still enough to show just how rattled Jay is by this whole thing.

“We wait. Oracle knew where we were going, there's no way she hasn't informed pretty much everyone of what happened by now. They'll get us out of here soon enough.” He doesn't have to pretend to be confident. He is. The whole family's in town, and Jon Kent is visiting Damian, so chances are Superman has been called by now. They'll be fine.

“You think they're going to be fast?” Jay's trembling again, a little bit, his head hidden between his knees. Dick takes the risk and slings his arm around his brother's shoulder. Jay doesn't react, but Dick thinks he's leaning in a little bit.

“Yeah. Explosions and being trapped underground are kind of sore spots in the family history, you know?”

Jay snorts. He actually snorts, and Dick can only barely restrain himself from punching the air in victory. A laughing Jay is a non panicky Jay.

“You should totally come home tonight. Eat some of Alfed's cookies, watch a movie. The usual.” It's a risk, it always is, to invite Jay home. Jay is fiercely independent, and he doesn't always appreciate going to the manor. Then again, Alfred's cookies have been known to sway Wonder Woman, so...

“Why not?” Jay says, and this time, Dick just grins. “But only if the demon brat can restrain his comments about us being caught in an explosion.”

“He's not a demon, and he's gotten a lot better! But I'll definitively talk to him.” Dick tells him, and that's when a loud creaking above them announces that help has finally come. It takes only a minute, and then Superman is peaking in from above, hair tousled as if he flew very fast. Which, considering he was in Metropolis as far as Dick knows, he must have.

“You boys okay down there?” He asks, looking rather worried.

“Peachy.” Jay says, and Dick nods.

Neither of them minds when Superman actually carries them out.

 


End file.
